Strange Occurrences on the Western Front

[Le_Treport]

A while ago, I was in touch with the webmaster of a website which relates to the war dead of Kinnethmont in Aberdeenshire. He had a name on his memorial which he had incorrectly assumed was my great-uncle, Wm ROBERTSON. This was then corrected.

Moving on…

Recently there was a quiz on the forum run by frajohn in which we had to identify the cemetery from a photo of the cross of sacrifice.

Whilst attempting this, I did a Google image search on ‘cross of sacrifice’ and on the first page of results was one from www.kinnethmont.co.uk. Remembering my earlier contact over this village, I clicked on the image (which was of a cross of sacrifice), and the web-page it took me to was not the home page, but to the page relating to just one of the WW2 names on the memorial.

The photo was of the CWGC headstone, in Berkshire, of an Alexander MACKIE!

Now my name, Alasdair, is the Gaelic for Alexander, so I was brought up short by seeing, in effect, my own name on the gravestone! Particularly as my initial link with Kinnethmont was with the ROBERTSON name – not MACKIE! As far as I know I have no link to Kinnethmont.

I do now think about this young name-sake of mine who lies buried far from home.

[PBI]

Don't know if any other pal's have the same scary experience that i always have when I go the the Western Front?

I wake up in the morning with a headache and when I check my pockets all my money has gone!

Best wishes to you all,

Scottie.

(Sorry, couldn't resist it)

It Happened to me last Sunday Morning at Kemmel !!!!

[Greyhound]

At the start of a trip to the battlefields, I was talking to a lady who told me that she had a relative who was killed in WW1, but that she knew nothing at all apart from his name. Not when or where he was killed, his regiment – nothing.

At the very first British cemetery we visited, she found a headstone with his name on it. We checked in the register ….. and it was him.

Now that really was a chance in a million.

[celestine47]

hello Rodge, this post is late as I have only just found this thread.

My two experiences were not on a w.w.1 battlefield but with artifacts found on those battlefields.

About 25 years ago there was an antique shop in Newcastle , now long gone, I went into the shop with my family as we were exploring Newcastle having only just moved here.

I immediately stopped dead in the doorway and felt something truly dark and dreadful and really in my opinion, quite evil in presence, I looked up and on the wall above the shop counter was a dark object with a malevolent look; it was a First World War German Stalhelm, it was painted in a very dark colour and I had never seen one before, I felt I had to leave the shop as I kept looking up at this object and could not look around the shop, the Stalhelm reminded me of a large black spider crouching on the wall ready to move at a moments notice, I really did not like it at all despite having an interest in the Great War for many years .

I was never able to go into that shop again, but even now the thought of this thing fills me with dread.

The second experience was to do with my handling an object.

I was sent some Irish cap badges which I had ordered and one was a battlefield example-dug up at some point, the badge in question was wrapped in tissue paper so I did not know what it was but I got an overwhelming feeling of utter despair and saddness as I held it -unwrapped-in my hand and when I unwrapped it , the feeling gradually faded away.

[celestine47]

"we're still here", dear God that makes me sad , how will we exorcise the ghosts of such a horrific period in our history and what karmic debt will be paid and by whom.

[celestine47]

I have some inexplicable photographs and negatives within a sequence I took in Gommecourt Wood about ten years ago. I don't wish to describe them on the Internet, but they are chilling both to me and to my scientific, completely rational husband.

I wondered whether anyone has investigated or written about local people's views on this theme? For example, has anyone recorded local people's accounts and experiences?

Gwyn

I would love to see your photographs, do not be afraid bonny lass, you are amoung friends.

[trenchtrotter]

Mmmm,

I am a sceptic but will share these two experiences.

1. On the Butte De Vauquois, Argonne on a calm day I was in the woods surrounded by trenches, dugouts etc and I saw a small spiralling wind form in the woods and head straight towards me. It went through and past me and left me in no doubt I was unwelcome. I literally ran back to the car park where my friend was waiting. I said we had to go as we were not welcome and he agreed telling me about this wind that had risen from nowhere and swept through the hollow and sheltered ground he was in. He was on the other side of the hill. Needless to say we left.

2. I had read a book on Americans who served in the Friends Ambulance Unit and one was Paul Gannet Osbourne. For some reason his name remained in my mind above many others I went to the American cemetery near Fere en Tardenois and wandering aimlessly amonst the graves the first I stopped at and read was his. Perhaps merely co-incidence!

Make what you will but we do walk traumatised ground when we visit the battlefields.

TT

[celestine47]

This response might be controversial, but my personal interest in WW1 stems from the fact that I am convinced that I was there!! The 3rd Battle of Ypres. No detail of other battle in any war affects me in the same way.

Unlike some people I have read about, there are no dreams, flashbacks etc., it's just a feeling.

One day I will go to the battlefield, sit in a quiet corner, and know, because my earlier body must still be there.

Gordon

I wonder if we can all explain our interest in the Great War, ??, I sometimes wonder if I was "there" as I can not explainan why I have been interested in this subject for nearly 40 years -I am now 48.

[celestine47]

You're not alone.

I have barely the slightest interest in other wars - well interest yes, but on a different level. I haven't found 'the place' yet, but I have a deeper, darker (?!) non-specific, emotional link with WW1 which puzzles me!

Yes , I feel the same way, are we "linked" in some way perhaps as a group? would we "know" each other if we all met??. deep and dark and non specific is also the way I would explain my feelings about the Great War, I have tried a number of times to buy books on other subjects but I keep comming back to this one.

Reincarnation??, I do not know , is it perhaps "folk memory" something genetic which our blood remembers, it is handed down to use from our reletives who were there??. I certainly do not understand why I shed so many tears over the Great War??

[celestine47]

Given my response in post #149, I've thought about it, researched it in The Reincarnation Forum of My Webpage but wouldn't quite know how to go about it even if I had the bottle to do it.

so GI, I have marked your webpage on reincarnation, -do you think we could be a group?? as we all have the same interest?.

I think a group of people with an inexplicable interest in a war of any era could make for some interesting discussion.

[Borderman]

This is getting a little creepy

[celestine47]

Gordon, I do believe that you were there, when you go to the area walk as much as you can, be aware of your feelings then find out which Regiment was there, then look on soldiers died, print the names and you might find that a name pops out at you,

I am still trying to determine who i was from my experience in the Sunken Road at Beaumont Hamel on 1st July this year. That place has held me for the last 9 years but this year was special, I know that eventually I will determine who i was but not until next year when i return will i know for definate who i was, I am either in Beaumont cemetery, Redan Ridge or of course on the Thiepval Memorial.

Mandy

mandy, any possibility that all of us as a group could be reincarnated together?.

I also have a life long interest in the Great War which defies my attempts to stop reading about it!.

[CROONAERT]

is it perhaps "folk memory" something genetic which our blood remembers, it is handed down to use from our reletives who were there??.

That was always my mum's theory!

Dave.

[celestine47]

This is getting a little creepy

these things are , but fear not you are amoung friends and any way what are "ghosts" except human beings who have lived and loved.

[CROONAERT]

mandy, any possibility that all of us as a group could be reincarnated together?.

I also have a life long interest in the Great War which defies my attempts to stop reading about it!.

Very doubtful (even though I am a believer in reincarnation of a sort). I have always had a deep interest in the Great war from the age of 4 or 5 and have devoted much of my life to it's study. However, my real passion lies in one of it's predecessors (which is an odd thing for an Englishman)!

Dave (aka. Lt. Botho.von Kitzing (Kaiser Franz Garde Gren. Regt.) )

[Borderman]

It is interesting to note how many odd happenings occur in woods, or indeed graveyards.

And lets face it, you'd expect some human reaction in such places.

Woods have a primeval spookiness that can still touch a 'modern' humans soul. (And lets face it you probably didn’t ask permission to be their anyway) Not to mention distant noises distorted by the trees of pheasants and wild boar.

And cemeteries - well they're full of dead folk.

Dave

[Ozzie]

Was it the Celts who believed that trees held memories?

Or something like that? There is something that is niggling my memory about this.

I know some ancient religions believed that every thing in nature has its own soul. If you go back to the ancient ones, it might explian a few things, and if we do have a bllod or genetic memory, this might also help explain.

Kim

[celestine47]

Jan,

never say never....but on this thread, I fear I have to concur: I am too realistic minded to believe in strange occurances. I have been also a couple of times at midnight out there at the trenches or war graves. I very much was inspired by the peaceful athmosphere. The only time I felt something spooky was when a (small) bottle of 1992 Cotes du Rhone passed by. But I don't want to offend other believers: I am just a lousy medium.

hello, I have a sister in law who is very psychic and an a brother who tanks God he isnt!, some people just do not pick things up but it does not mean that others exeriences can be explaned away, I always though go for the scientific explanation first , but just look at the scale and dreadfullness of the slaughter-is is not surprising that " something " might just linger??.

[celestine47]

I too have visited cemeteries late at night, when there seems an even greater sense of calm and timelessness. I am not sure I would feel quite as easy by one of Verdun's windowed ossuaries though.

Having said that, I have heard several people say they feel uneasy, especially around Verdun, and if that is what they truly feel, then so be it. However, if we come in peace and veneration (as most of us Forumites surely do) then why should any resident spirits protest?

jealously that we are alive and live life and they do not perhaps??

[celestine47]

Whether you believe in any of this or not I agree with Kate. I think we all visit for the right reasons so shouldn't be too concerned. Possibly the spirits in Mametz Wood have been agitated by those who have left unsightly holes in the ground after their metal detecting exploits!

I agree bonny lad , it's called desecration!

[celestine47]

Does anyone know of a particular website etc, and/or books to view similar info as in this thread.

yes , I agree, there are not enough books on the issue of military hauntings. I used to have a book years ago called " a casebook of military mystery" but foolishly I gave it away.

[celestine47]

I once read that in World War one, Hitler was asleep in a foxhole and dreamt that he was in great danger. He woke up, jumped out of the foxhole he was in and turned around to see (I think) four soldiers he was just sharing the foxhole with, get blown away by a shell.

- Chris

blimey oh riley! , funny how the devil looks after his own11

[celestine47]

This response might be controversial, but my personal interest in WW1 stems from the fact that I am convinced that I was there!! The 3rd Battle of Ypres. No detail of other battle in any war affects me in the same way.

Unlike some people I have read about, there are no dreams, flashbacks etc., it's just a feeling.

One day I will go to the battlefield, sit in a quiet corner, and know, because my earlier body must still be there.

Gordon

I feel the same way when I look at a photograph of the French memorial , "the trench of bayonets"

[celestine47]

Was it the Celts who believed that trees held memories?

Or something like that? There is something that is niggling my memory about this.

I know some ancient religions believed that every thing in nature has its own soul. If you go back to the ancient ones, it might explian a few things, and if we do have a bllod or genetic memory, this might also help explain.

Kim

i remember reading a story about an archaologist who took a couple of stone heads back to her home, the heads were part of some military cult. The whole family had a few sleepless nights and scary days, freezing temperatures and dark menacing shadows before the archaologist took the artifacts away to the university antiquities department.

[celestine47]

I am very interested to hear in confidence, from anyone who has modern- day (Post 1918) personal first hand stories of strange sittings or experiences and feelings when they have visited WWI & WWII battlefields, airfields or military bases. I hope to gather and cross reference such stories and articles into a database archive.

Thanks

Rodge D. (The Archivist)

I am glad we can talk about this subject as I have just had a nasty experience with another great war forum which has just "locked" the subject and refused to allow any discussion on this subject, apparently as it has " no relevance" to the study of the Great War.

I have sent an email to the moderator to the effect that I feel that we should discuss all aspects of the Great war and given the horrors of the conflict is it not surprising that there remains a residual energy which should touch us at a deep and unexplanned level it is human that it should do so and it is only right that we should be allowed a few moments to share those feelings with others and shed a few tears. What ever the "moderator" was thinking, history is not a collection of books but it is people who have lived and who have loved and I would rather have a site which indulges the emotions and in doing so binds us together as human beings in a shared pool of tears and fellow feeling and opinion and the fact that Rodge allows us to do that makes this probably the best forum I have ever joined .

God bless you all and I look forward to responding to you all in not too distant the future.